thumsup

10 years ago

Hi everyone! I know that I haven't been on Dogonews and writing reviews for a long time now... ;__; but I promise I'll be back soon! Please keep checking for new updates from Thumsup! UPDATE: 1/15/2014 Now, let's get this review started! The 10 PM Question first strikes you with how.......ordinary, it is. From looking at the cover of two birds and one in a cage, I guess you had expected this book to be a mystery or suspense novel. You were thinking, "Oh, that's symbolism, right? One bird in a cage; maybe one person gets captured and held hostage while the other person comes to them each day, offering hospitality and rations in secret, hoping sometime in the foreseeable future that they can both be together, and free!" And then you were probably praising yourself for being such a genius, and setting REALLY HIGH expectations on this book since all thriller novels are supposed to be grand, right? -__- I hope that you weren't HONESTLY thinking all that. If you were, then luckily you are reading my review before you shock yourself by realizing how judgmental you are, and that this book is accomplished in something different than your dream fantasy thriller novel. First, you encounter Frank. He is your everyday boy who worries about keeping neat, being stressed by trivial things, and upholding all the order and organization in a supposedly very unkempt household- all by himself. Wait, did I actually meet boys like this in real life? *Comtemplates brother, father's room, obnoxious classmates at school who can't keep their locker clean for a single HOUR* Nope, I didn't. Due to all this, he commonly freaks out at every little thing in his way, but finds the motivation to keep moving forward by discussing his troubles with his mother. There isn't very much we know about Mother, except how she is a good mother, never goes out of the house (ever), and shares her troubles with her beloved son at 10-pm every night. So, there is a very mysterious air about her. This is just a small part of the book. However, you might be confused if you find yourself tricked by the many incidents that happen in the plot, so you have to be very attentive and active comprehensively. After I was done reading this novel, I realized that if I was hired to write something like this, I would fail epically. Kate de Goldi masterfully handles the plot of the story not by converging it into subplots, but by keeping it hidden woven through every chapter and beckoning for those detective readers to come find it, and be pleasantly surprised to find something other than the pearl they were looking for. Do you want to know what they find? A massive string of jewels, rubies, emeralds, and diamonds; something priceless in this realistic but unique story of 10-pm questions and consequences, good and unfortunate.